No Farm Bill could mean $38 milk after Jan. 1

If a new Farm Bill isn’t passed by Jan. 1, permanent law dating back to the 1930s and 1940s takes effect. That, in turn, would deliver parity and raise dairy price supports to $38 per hundredweight or more.

“We’ll have $38 milk at that point. And that will hopefully motivate somebody. We’ll see what happens,” Collin Peterson (D-Minn), ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee, told Agri-Talk Radio on Tuesday. (Listen to the audio clip above.)

Peterson continues to express frustration over failure to pass a new Farm Bill. Yet, he remains hopeful that a new one will be passed in the congressional “lame duck” session between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

“We have enough votes to pass this bill the way it came out of (the House Agriculture) Committee,” Peterson said. “They just need to put it on the floor (of the House), and hopefully they will.”

Peterson said House Speaker John Boehner has not been the problem.

“The problem has been (House Majority Leader Eric) Cantor and his allies,” Peterson said. There’s about 100 House Republicans who are holding up the Farm Bill discussion for various reasons, he added.

“Some of them think we haven't made enough reform in the commodity title; some of them don’t like the sugar program; some of them don’t like the dairy program,” he said. “Some of them want to cut more out of food stamps.”

Boehner would like to get a farm bill done in the lame duck session, Peterson said, citing discussions he had with the Speaker this summer.

“Hopefully, we will have an ally in the Speaker in bringing this up in the lame duck session,” Peterson added.